The Healthcare Demand for Nurses: Current Shortages in Nursing 

Written by Natalie O’Neil

 

Similar to an abundance of systems of education, the nursing school system is stuck in tons of corrupt and never-ending loops.  

What does that look like you ask? Let me break it down for you. The first problem to focus on would be the shortage of physical schools available to receive a nursing education. Nursing schools cannot be built in urban/rural areas because it is too expensive to build and house nursing equipment for smaller classroom sizes.  

Physical (as opposed to virtual) classrooms that are built for say 25 students can only ever teach 25 students at a time. In addition to building the school, stationary nursing equipment, and the upkeep of the materials and grounds, there is also the expense of experimental nursing equipment such as nursing mannequins, IV arms, scrubs, etcetera.  

In addition to the astronomical cost, for nursing schools to be officially recognized and authorized they must have students and have been running for a few years producing quality nurses. However, incoming nursing students usually want to choose already accredited nursing schools. There is no opportunity for growth and accreditation. This creates a sort of impossible situation for new nursing schools, wouldn’t you think? 

 

 Impacts of this Shortage  

Now, what follows naturally from a shortage of nursing education? A shortage of nurses and therefore a shortage of nursing school educators.  

Due to the shortage of nurses, the salary for nurses is increased and very few institutions can afford to pay employees more than what they make as a nurse to teach new students. Also, there is a very small number of nurses who would willingly give up the job they love to pursue a higher degree to teach incoming students.  

So now we’re stuck with limited qualified nursing schools, limited qualified teachers, and a shortage of currently working nurses.  It only takes two years of school to receive an Associate’s Degree in Nursing or four years to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing to be able to enter a job held in high regard, with flexible shifts, and work opportunities in almost any city.  

This creates a high desire to achieve a degree in nursing leading to year long waitlists and a very competitive schooling experience once accepted. 

 

The Exam: Passing Nurses 

Lastly in the list of problems with nursing school, it has become the standard of many nursing school accreditors to base the quality of the school on first-time pass rates of the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX).  

Because of this, nursing schools often implement abundant testing to “screen out” students who might not be good at taking tests. Nightingale College says, “This not only eliminates many people who may be great nurses, but it disproportionately impacts minorities.” (The College for the People, 2020). (Minorities such as people who experience mental health problems causing them to not be good test takers).  

To maintain high test rates, schools implement benchmark tests allowing students who pass to continue with their program, and those who do not pass are kicked out. Furthermore, employers of nurses never ask how many times one has attempted the NCLEX only that they passed.  

Therefore, the practice of judging a school on this “first-time pass rate” leads to an unnecessary decreased number of licensed nurses. Because schools with higher first-time pass rates are seen as better quality, they gain a higher demand of students only further encouraging the practice of “washing out” students who don’t pass the benchmark tests.  

 

The Real Reason for Shortage 

When it became clear that there is currently a shortage of nurses, it was assumed that not enough people were going into nursing school. Now we know that just like most problems, the system is corrupt and stuck in an impossible situation.  

So how is this problem worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic?  

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, any employers of nurses have been forced to lower the nurses’ salary and limit opportunities for vacation time, raises, overtime, and more. Nurses are currently struggling for safety and quality standards in hospitals due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). Because of these factors, there has been an increase of current nurses retiring in fear of catching the virus.  

Now, this does worsen the current nursing shortage however, hopefully this will eventually lead to nurses who retired earlier than they had planned to return to teach in the future.  

Since the development of Covid-19, the regulations on nursing licenses have relaxed allowing nurses to be fast-tracked for practice in the United States which would improve the waitlists but probably impair the quality of nurses. Currently, nursing schools are closed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 but as of July 28, 2020, nursing schools are being considered for reopening with guidelines.  

Unfortunately, similar to everything else in these uncertain times, the future of nurses and nursing schools is still unknown. I hope that by bringing awareness to the corruption in the system, we can start seeing some reform for the sake of the healthcare system we all experience in one form or another. 

 

Citations: 

The college for the people (2020, Aug. 25th). HOW HARD IS NURSING SCHOOL? THE CHALLENGES OF BECOMING A NURSE FROM A TO Z, https://nightingale.edu/blog/how-hard-is-nursing-school/ 

 

Gaines, Kathleen (2020, June 26th) This is How COVID-19 is Changing The Future of Nursing For Students and Tenured Nurses, https://nurse.org/articles/how-covid19-changing-future-of-nursing-students-rn/